China on Monday urged the US, Germany and the UK to cancel an upcoming videoconference on Beijing’s crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority, and called on other UN members not to attend the event.
At least 1 million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, according to rights groups, who have accused authorities of forcibly sterilizing women and imposing forced labor.
The videoconference, scheduled for today, “is based on sheer lies and political bias,” China’s diplomatic mission to the UN said in a statement.
Photo: AFP
Beijing “urges the cosponsors to immediately cancel this event, which interferes in China’s internal affairs, and calls on other member states to reject the event,” it said.
“The current situation in Xinjiang is at its best in history, with stability, rapid economic development and harmonious coexistence among people of all ethnic groups,” the statement said.
In addition to the camps, millions more Muslims in China allegedly live under a tough system of surveillance and controls.
The US has declared that the treatment of Uighurs is “genocide.”
“The US claims to care about the human rights of Muslim people, despite the world-known fact that the US has been killing Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” China’s statement said. “It is the US and its followers that have killed the largest number of Muslims in the world.”
At the meeting today, the ambassadors to the UN from the US, Germany and the UK — who represent the Uighurs — are expected to speak, as well as the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch, which co-organized the event.
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